Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Ezekiel 9,1-7; 10,18-22
Then he shouted loudly for me to hear, 'The scourges of the city are approaching, each carrying his weapon of destruction!' Immediately six men advanced from the upper north gate, each holding a deadly weapon. Among them was a man dressed in linen, with a scribe's ink-horn in his belt. They came in and halted in front of the bronze altar. The glory of the God of Israel rose from above the winged creature where it had been, towards the threshold of the Temple. He called to the man dressed in linen with a scribe's ink-horn in his belt and Yahweh said to him, 'Go all through the city, all through Jerusalem, and mark a cross on the foreheads of all who grieve and lament over all the loathsome practices in it.' I heard him say to the others, 'Follow him through the city and strike. Not one glance of pity; show no mercy; old men, young men, girls, children, women, kill and exterminate them all. But do not touch anyone with a cross on his forehead. Begin at my sanctuary.' So they began with the old men who were in the Temple. He said to them, 'Defile the Temple; fill the courts with corpses; then go out!' They went out and hacked their way through the city. The glory of Yahweh then came out over the Temple threshold and paused over the winged creatures. These raised their wings and rose from the ground as I watched, and the wheels were beside them. They paused at the entrance to the east gate of the Temple of Yahweh, with the glory of the God of Israel over them, above. This was the winged creature I had seen beneath the God of Israel by the River Chebar; I knew that they were winged creatures. Each had four faces and four wings and what seemed to be human hands under their wings. Their faces were like those I had seen by the River Chebar. Each one moved straight forward.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Today's reading is made up of two passages, taken from chapters nine and ten, containing two of Ezekiel's visions. The first tells of how the Lord sent messengers to punish the sinful city, while preserving a remnant, while the second shows the glory of the Lord coming out of the profaned Temple. The prophet had seen with his own eyes the destruction caused by the Babylonian army in the streets of Jerusalem. Now he is experiencing the suffering of exile along with many other Jews, and, with God's eyes, he sees what is about to happen to the city because of the hardness of heart of the king Zedekiah. The prophet's description is stark and dramatic. He reads it as God's punishment of the people's betrayal of the covenant. Using less stark and perhaps for us more comprehensible language, we could say that it is not God who punishes: the destruction of the city, with the cruelty that accompanies it, is not the work of God. It is the bitter and terrible consequence of human behaviour when people let themselves by guided by the spirit of evil. In his vision, Ezekiel speaks of six men, sent to exterminate the city and eliminate all those who let themselves be seduced by evil. No one was to be spared, except those who longed for peace and justice and had not betrayed the covenant with God. That is why there is a seventh messenger, dressed in linen because of his closeness to God, whose task it is to go before the others and mark those who were to be spared with a "tau" (at that time it was shaped like a cross and was the first letter of the Hebrew word "Torah"). They are a remnant, like the children of Israel saved by the angel of the Lord on the night of the Passover in Egypt (Ex 12:23-29), like the seven thousand who did not kneel down before Baal in the time of Elijah (1 K 19:18) and like the disciples of Isaiah (Is 8:16-17). The Christian spiritual tradition has read this "tau" - written like a cross - as a sign of Jesus, who saves those who let themselves be involved in his love
Doa merupakan jantung kehidupan Komunitas Sant'Egidio dan merupakan prioritas yang paling penting. Di penghujung hari, setiap Komunitas Sant'Egidio, besar maupun kecil, akan berkumpul di sekeliling Tuhan untuk mendengarkan sabda-Nya. Sesungguhnya Sabda Allah dan doa merupakan landasan seluruh kehidupan Komunitas. Para rasul tidak bisa tidak selain tetap di sekitar kaki Yesus, seperti yang dilakukan oleh Maria dari Bethani, untuk menerima kasih dan belajar cara-Nya (Fil. 2:5).
Sehingga setiap malam, ketika Komunitas kembali ke kaki Tuhan, Komunitas mengulangi kata-kata dari rasul tak bernama: "Tuhan ajarkanlah kami cara berdoa" Yesus, Sang Guru, terus menjawab: "Ketika kamu berdoa, katakanlah: Abba, Bapa". Hal itu bukanlah satu seruan sederhana. Dengan kata-kata ini, Yesus membiarkan para murid untuk berperan serta dalam hubungan mereka sendiri dengan Bapa. Oleh sebab itu, fakta bahwa sebagai anak-anak Bapa yang bertahta di surga, muncul sebelum kata-kata yang mungkin kita ucapkan. Jadi doa di atas segalanya merupakan cara untuk menjadi manusia. Ini untuk mengatakan bahwa kita anak-anak yang berpaling kepada Bapa dengan iman, dan yakin bahwa hal itu akan didengar.
Yesus mengajar kita memanggil Allah dengan sebutan "Bapa Kami" Tidak hanya "Bapa" atau "Bapaku" Para murid, meskipun mereka berdoa dengan cara mereka, tidak pernah terisolasi tidak juga menjadi yatim; mereka selalu menjadi anggota keluarga Tuhan.
Dalam doa bersama, di samping misteri anak Allah, ada juga misteri persaudaraan, seperti Bapa Gereja mengatakan: "Kamu tidak bisa memiliki Allah sebagai Bapa tanpa memiliki gereja sebagai ibu". Ketika berdoa bersama, Roh Kudus menyatukan para rasul di ruangan atas bersama dengan Maria, Bunda Allah, sehingga mereka dapat memusatkan pandangan mereka kepada wajah Tuhan dan belajar dari Dia rahasia hati-Nya.
Komunitas Sant'Egidio di seluruh dunia berkumpul bersama di berbagai tempat doa dan menghamparkan di hadapan Tuhan harapan dan penderitaan manusia yang lelah dan letih seperti yang di katakan oleh Injil (Mat. 9:37). Dalam kumpulan di masa lalu ini kita bisa melihat jumlah massa yang sangat besar di kota-kota modern ini, jutaan pengungsi yang terus melarikan diri dari negeri mereka, orang miskin yang terpinggirkan ke tepi kehidupan dan mereka yang menantikan seseorang yang akan merawat mereka. Berdoa bersama termasuk di dalamnya tangisan, seruan, permohonan, keinginan bagi damai, penyembuhan dan penebusan manusia di dunia ini. Doa tidak pernah sia-sia, doa terus menerus kepada Tuhan sehingga mengubah kecemasan menjadi harapan, air mata menjadi kegembiraan, putus asa menjadi kebahagiaan, dan kesepian menjadi persatuan. Semoga Kerajaan Allah hadir segera di antara manusia.
